SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tied in the bottom of the eighth, Brady Kindhardt jumped on the first pitch he saw, scoring two runs and giving the Mayville baseball team its 11th win in a row and an important game one victory to start the four-game road series with the Drury Panthers.
Playing at Mark Worley Field in Springfield, Mo., the Saints pitching was clutch the whole contest, stranding 11 Panthers on base while striking out eight batters total.
Blake Sivak earned his fourth win of the season, giving the Saints 2 & 1/3 of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen, while junior
Collin Greiner earned his fifth save of the season.
On the offensive end, four Saints tallied multiple hits in the ballgame, with
Matthew Rauser,
Jace Burton,
Dominic Anselmo and Kindhardt producing eight of the nine total Saint hits. Anselmo, coming off an eight-RBI game in the series finale against Jewell, stayed hot with three RBIs while Kindhart provided the game winning RBIs.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Pitching proved dominant through the first two frames, with
Braeden Sunken facing the minimum going into the third. The offensive gave him some cushion in the top half of the third, as after singles by Justin Gorksi and Burton, Anselmo tallied his seventh double of the year, plating a pair and giving the Saints the first lead of the ballgame. Drury cut that lead in half almost instantly, using a pair of singles of their own and a fielder's choice to score in the bottom half of the inning.
Sunken resettled in from there, tossing up zeros in the fourth and fifth before a leadoff home run in the sixth rattled the Saints Friday starter. Two more singles followed with Drury scoring a run to tie it before the Saints turned to Sivak, who struck out the first batter he faced to escape the jam and leave two on. Sivak escaped another game in the seventh, runners at second and third to leave the lead at one, a lead that did not last for the Panthers.
With the Panthers turning to the bullpen, Maryville immediately attacked, with Burton lacing a triple over the head of the centerfielder, with Anselmo scoring him on an RBI knock two batters later. A dropped third strike wild pitch allowed Steven Schnieder to reach and Anselmo to get to third, setting speed up on the bases for Kindhart, where he sent both home on a first-pitch missile into left field.
After a massive zero in the bottom of the eighth by Sivak, the Saints turned to the sidearmer in
Collin Greiner who struck out the last two batters he faced to grab his fifth save of the season and the Saints 11th-straight win.
UP NEXT
The Saints and Panthers head to the doubleheader of the four-game set tomorrow at Mark Worley with first pitch set for 1 p.m.
